The United States is manipulating humanitarian concern in an effort to protect its proxy militias and its imperial regime-change project in Syria.

The media and intellectual classes are dutifully falling in line, promoting a narrative of military aggression under the cover of “protecting civilians.” These same “responsibility to protect” arguments led to the invasions of Iraq and Libya, exponentially increasing the massacres, chaos, and proliferation of violent extremism within those countries. They are hypocritical, designed to further interests of conquest and domination, and will lead to more death and destruction in Syria as well.

The United States has no stake in the wellbeing of Syrian civilians, despite their condemnations of Russia’s offensive in Aleppo. This is clearly shown in the fact that the people they are supporting are guilty of the same crimes they accuse Russia and Syria of: indiscriminate attacks, targeting of civilians, destruction of schools, hospitals, etc. Furthermore, the offensive in Aleppo is really no different from what the U.S. did in Manbij, where they are said to have incorporated a “scorched earth policy” while they liberated the city from ISIS, whereby the civilian population was treated “as if they were terrorists or ISIS supporters.”

Headlines in Western media reported that “new evidence supports claims about Syrian state detention deaths.” The Guardian added that “a leading rights group has released new evidence that up to 7,000 Syrians who died in state detention centres were tortured, mistreated, or executed” and, noting that this information is a moral wake-up call, demanded that officials being held to account should be “central to peace efforts.”

However, as is usually so, not everything is quite as it seems. So let’s take a look at the facts.

First the timing.

As has become commonplace, the timing of reports like these almost always coincide with important diplomatic meetings or just after important UN resolutions are passed.